This one was pretty much what I thought it would be over the Miami Heat at PayCom. This Heat team to me looks like a borderline Eastern Conference play-in team which was missing Norman Powell.
The Heat does very little for me with the way their team construction is at the top. On my poll …I have them somewhere between 16-20 on my current overall NBA ranking poll. They’re kind of fun to watch here and there with Bam, Tyler Herro, and Davion Mitchell blurring around the court. But I can’t imagine Coach Spoelstra feels strongly about this group at the present.
The Thunder minus Isaiah Hartenstein were back at full strength and ‘somewhat’ flashed Forty Minutes of Hell in the second half as the Heat ended up turning the ball over 23 times. You do that as a team against the Thunder and you’re begging for a double-digit loss.
Like 124-112, voila. This is not complex. If you allow the Thunder to create pace and tempo thru easy transition baskets…you as a basketball team are done.
So now we have a Thunder week I’ve had scheduled for a bit. The Thunder host the Spurs on Tuesday. I am not sure of Wembyama’s status at this point. If he doesn’t play…the game will be irrelevant to me. If he plays and Hartenstein plays it will be must watch NBA for me on Tuesday night inside of PayCom.
Then on Thursday the Thunder travel to Houston to play the point-guardless Rockets. Again…this is one I want to see. This is one I want to observe and take in for Mike J’s data-bank reference for April.
And then the Thunder travel to Miami on the week-end for a road game to close out this set of three games I’ve had circled. Of course, in this NBA—we never know who is going to be on the court and who is going to be on a DNP list with a scratch, bump, or bruise. Let me tell you NBA dudes this….y’all made a wise decision choosing the NBA over the NFL or NHL as the place to become generationally rich. Just saying.
So while I’m excited for this week, but MJ is still guarded keeping myself in a state of cautionary reality before we see who actually plays in these games.
The Thunder sit at 33-7 which gives them not only a 5-6 game cushion for the No. 1 seed in the West, but also a comfortable cushion over the East as we all saw last season HOW VALUABLE that No. 1 seed can be given the way the Denver and Indiana series extended to seven games.
If I were a Thunder ‘fanatic’…which I’m not. I like the Thunder, but I’m not at this point obsessed with the Thunder. I wouldn’t be concerned with doing the Warrior thing and trying to go 73-9. I would not in any way be obsessed with that. The Warriors lost that year in the Finals anyway.
I would think the mantra inside of the Thunder Bunker where Coach Mark and Sam Presti make these kind of decisions is just get healthy and make sure that when the time comes to shrink the rotation from twelve players to ten players that adjustment is made before losing a Game 1 to the likes of Denver or whoever emerges in the West as that other team to beat.
If that team turns out to be San Antonio or Houston or even Minnesota, what Mike J is saying here is…learn from last season. Don’t screw around in a home Game 1 and take care of business so as to possibly avoid playing a Game 7 against a healthy, capable team. That’s the very reason you want the overall No. 1 seed.
As far as football goes…I would say at this point Coach Cignetti should after winning this national championship game versus the ‘Canes at Hard Rock Stadium, decide to take the Green Bay Packer job and restore the required mental toughness to my Packers who at 9-3-1 never won another game this season after Micah Parsons went down.
Have a peaceful Monday.
Mike J